Cold down low, warm up high

We found generally stable conditions north of Elkford today. There was a temperature inversion with cold air trapped down low, and above freezing temps in the alpine. There were a few small point releases out of extreme southerly terrain. On a north east (shady) aspect the top of the snowpack is sugary and skiing well. At 2100 m there was 70cm of snow and the November crust down 50cm, but we had no snowpack test results on that layer. We did not see any recent avalanches. Going too far off trail with a sled in this area still seems like a recipe for broken A-arms with lots of early season hazards.